Green Bay got a pair of defensive awards on Thursday, with Evan Williams named NFC Defensive Player of the Month and Brandon Cisse chosen as NFL Defensive Rookie of October. Matt LaFleur texted both players Thursday morning to congratulate them, a small gesture that fit a bigger truth: the Packers are getting major production from a defense that has kept winning even while key pieces have been missing.
The timing made the honors stand out. Green Bay entered its Sunday matchup with New England ranked second in takeaways, eighth in passing defense, 10th in scoring defense and 10th in total defense, which is why the searches around Evan Williams Packers have clustered around the same question: how is this defense holding up so well now? Williams and Cisse are the clearest answer. Williams, in five October starts, had 41 tackles, four passes defensed, three quarterback hits, two interceptions, one fumble recovery and one sack. Cisse, in five October starts of his own, posted 21 tackles, two tackles for loss, seven passes defensed, one interception and one sack.
Williams' award was the third straight October that a Packers player won NFC Defensive Player of the Month, following Micah Parsons and Xavier McKinney in the previous two years. For Cisse, it was a first of its kind for Green Bay since Edgerrin Cooper won the rookie award in December 2024, and it came after the second-round pick from April forced his way into the lineup opposite Keisean Nixon. He has started all eight games, played 91% of the defensive snaps at 21 years old, and already lined up against Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb and Amon-Ra St. Brown while leading Green Bay's secondary with eight pass breakups.
That production matters because this has not been a full-strength defense. Micah Parsons missed the first eight games while recovering from knee surgery, and Cooper suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in Week 4. Even so, the Packers have kept climbing under new coordinator Jonathan Gannon, with Williams leading the defense with 66 combined tackles and 43 solo tackles, second-most in the league behind Alex Singleton's 49. Cisse has added 1½ sacks and caught his first NFL interception off Dak Prescott last month, another sign that the burden has shifted to a younger secondary and it is handling the weight.
The next test comes Sunday against New England, where Green Bay can either confirm that this is a monthlong surge or prove it is something sturdier than that. For now, the awards do more than reward two players; they explain why the Packers have been able to stay near the top of the NFL even when the defense was supposed to be shorthanded.
